SC Rebukes Rahul Gandhi for Remarks on Chinese Incursions into Indian Territory; Trump Aide Accuses India of “Financing Russia’s War”; A Moment of Disillusionment for Christian Sanghis

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A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Tanweer Alam, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Seema Chishti, Sushant Singh, MK Venu, and Siddharth Varadarajan | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK

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Over to Sidharth Bhatia for today’s Cable

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Snapshot of the day

August 4, 2025

Sidharth Bhatia

The Supreme Court on Monday rebuked Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his remarks about alleged Chinese incursions into Indian territory, saying that a “true Indian” would not make such statements, Live Law reports. A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and AG Masih made the comments in the context of his petition seeking that defamation proceedings against him be quashed. The bench asked the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha how he had verified claims that 2,000 sq km of Indian territory had been occupied. “Were you there?” Datta asked, according to Live Law. “Do you have any credible material? Why do you make these statements without any...If you were a true Indian, you would not say all this.” In response, Gandhi’s counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that it was also possible for a “true Indian” to say that 20 Indian soldiers were beaten up and killed, and that this was a matter of concern. He was referring to clashes between Indian and Chinese soldiers in June 2020 in the Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control. Datta, however, asked why Gandhi made such allegations on social media, instead of raising questions in Parliament.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the country’s top refiner, has bought 7 million barrels of September-arrival crude from the US, Canada and the Middle East via